I don't understand the big line on the game. It seems like way too much. But that's why they're in Vegas and I'm not.

I go back to the game 3 years ago, when they came out (in Columbus) with a crisp, short-intermediate passing game and moved the ball and scored, and were up 14-3 at the half, (against an OSU team that went 12-1)and OSU got booed off the field at halftime...at home.

In the 2nd half, McGloin started being McGloin and OSU got 2 pick-6's and rolled 38-14, but I can see the same type of success against the OSU D...maybe more sustained success too. Multiple TE sets, like the ones Iowa used to give them fits...plus a bonafide all-B1G receiver in Robinson downfield. (No scary running game though, to be kind)

I've had this game on my upset watch list for several weeks now, as I've said here. I do think this could be the week the Buckeyes stumble.

"I believe it is the nature of the human species to reject what is true but unpleasant and to embrace what is obviously false but comforting." H.L. Mencken

Put decent pressure on the Freshman QB and the Buckeyes win this game going away.

The DL pass rush needs be there from the get go! That means Spence and DL must be rushing the QB and not give him time to scan the field or set his feet. He's a pocket passer so collapse the pocket.

In the Iowa game (3rd and long) they had Spence covering the tight end (along with Reeves) 10 -15 yards downfield. They got burned for an 85 yard TD! What kind of scheme was that? Putting your best pass rusher in coverage? Their QB had all day to loft a perfect pass. Blitz Ryan Damn Shazier on 3rd and long if need be.

Juannieboy wrote:Put decent pressure on the Freshman QB and the Buckeyes win this game going away.

The DL pass rush needs be there from the get go! That means Spence and DL must be rushing the QB and not give him time to scan the field or set his feet. He's a pocket passer so collapse the pocket.

In the Iowa game (3rd and long) they had Spence covering the tight end (along with Reeves) 10 -15 yards downfield. They got burned for an 85 yard TD! What kind of scheme was that? Putting your best pass rusher in coverage? Their QB had all day to loft a perfect pass. Blitz Ryan Damn Shazier on 3rd and long if need be.

Don't give Hackenberg time to throw. ! I think it's that damn simple.

Amen. To my layman's eye, there have been several times (not just against Iowa) when the D was applying pressure- and it was working. Only to let 3 linemen stand up and dance with the O line on third down. The QB is comfortable, and when the pass is completed, the coverage is late anyway.

Juannieboy wrote:Put decent pressure on the Freshman QB and the Buckeyes win this game going away.

The DL pass rush needs be there from the get go! That means Spence and DL must be rushing the QB and not give him time to scan the field or set his feet. He's a pocket passer so collapse the pocket.

In the Iowa game (3rd and long) they had Spence covering the tight end (along with Reeves) 10 -15 yards downfield. They got burned for an 85 yard TD! What kind of scheme was that? Putting your best pass rusher in coverage? Their QB had all day to loft a perfect pass. Blitz Ryan Damn Shazier on 3rd and long if need be.

Don't give Hackenberg time to throw. ! I think it's that damn simple.

Teams drop DL into coverage all the time in zone blitzes, we weren't complaining when Cam Heyward had a near pick six against Miami in 2010. The issue is that it isn't a zone blitz, they are using it to disguise a drop 8 coverage.

The Buckeyes, schematically, have struggled to consistently bring pressure. They often just send their 4 without stunting or twisting, just rush four... nothing fancy. They have been blitzing, but blitzing with big cushions is self defeating. I have been pissed all year at the passive scheme selection.

Ross Fulton has a tremendous breakdown on last week's defense on 11W (link at the bottom) that very clearly describes what was wrong with OSU's D against Iowa. The bottom line is that Ohio State plays essentially the same 4-3 against non-spread teams and Iowa predicted the look (4-3 Under) and schemed for it perfectly. Ohio State always plays the SAM to the field side (any time you right always someone is failing) and plays the "little guys" (Spence and Shazier) to the boundary side (boundary side is the short side of the field, field side is the wide side). Most teams will play the SAM to the formation strength, Ohio State does not. So Iowa consistently put its formation strength to the boundary side. They frequently lined up with 2 TEs to the boundary creating a huge numbers advantage and then they ran outside zone plays to their numbers advantage.

Estabilishing the run like this caused the entire D to flow to the boundary on any run-action making play action to the weakside flat particularly effective.

None of this was "rocket surgery," but Ohio State was in no way prepared to face this and it showed the defensive players did not know how to line up or how to actually play it and the defensive staff made no adjustments until half time. Iowa ran a very simple, HS type offense and our million dollar per year DC could not make an in game adjustment. I was losing it during the game.

In Fickell's defense, most High School will line up two TEs to the Field, so I could see why that would be confusing.

Coming from a Wolverine, we're the football equivalent of a formerly abused wife of a meth addict who just remarried the safe nice guy. We're just glad we have someone who's aware that it's a rivalry and that tackling on defense is integral. Baby steps.

I am reasonably sure that everyone agrees with you that Pressure on a freshman QB is a good idea, the problem is that our staff has been allergic to bringing pressure all year. I am now officially on the replace Fickell bandwagon. I really hope that some school makes him a HC this year (it aint going to happen). Fickell is making 750K per year, he isn't going to get an offer anywhere near that as a HC in the MAC and there is no way he gets a BCS level offer.

Coming from a Wolverine, we're the football equivalent of a formerly abused wife of a meth addict who just remarried the safe nice guy. We're just glad we have someone who's aware that it's a rivalry and that tackling on defense is integral. Baby steps.

Juannieboy wrote:Put decent pressure on the Freshman QB and the Buckeyes win this game going away.

Teams drop DL into coverage all the time in zone blitzes, we weren't complaining when Cam Heyward had a near pick six against Miami in 2010. The issue is that it isn't a zone blitz, they are using it to disguise a drop 8 coverage.

The Buckeyes, schematically, have struggled to consistently bring pressure. They often just send their 4 without stunting or twisting, just rush four... nothing fancy. They have been blitzing, but blitzing with big cushions is self defeating. I have been pissed all year at the passive scheme selection.

Ross Fulton has a tremendous breakdown on last week's defense on 11W (link at the bottom) that very clearly describes what was wrong with OSU's D against Iowa. The bottom line is that Ohio State plays essentially the same 4-3 against non-spread teams and Iowa predicted the look (4-3 Under) and schemed for it perfectly. Ohio State always plays the SAM to the boundary side (any time you right always someone is failing) and plays the "little guys" (Spence and Shazier) to the boundary side (boundary side is the short side of the field, field side is the wide side). Most teams will play the SAM to the formation strength, Ohio State does not. So Iowa consistently put its formation strength to the field side. They frequently lined up with 2 TEs to the boundary creating a huge numbers advantage and then they ran outside zone plays to their numbers advantage.

Estabilishing the run like this caused the entire D to flow to the boundary on any run-action making play action to the weakside flat particularly effective.

None of this was "rocket surgery," but Ohio State was in no way prepared to face this and it showed the defensive players did not know how to line up or how to actually play it and the defensive staff made no adjustments until half time. Iowa ran a very simple, HS type offense and our million dollar per year DC could not make an in game adjustment. I was losing it during the game.

In Fickell's defense, most High School will line up two TEs to the Field, so I could see why that would be confusing.

I read Ross's excellent post at 11W. Great stuff.

I just didn't get that call, at that down and distance when the pass rush was getting to Iowa's QB. He was pressured & hit a couple of times before that.

I agree that Fickle is in over his head. Hell, just from in-game glimpses of him on TV you can see he always appears panic stricken.

Coombs is the CB coach, Withers is the Co-DC and safeties position coach.

As for Coombs accountability, you could probably equally credit him with Grant's remarkable turnaround as much as Roby's falling apart. Roby's play has been awful, but there are some mitigating factors on his behalf that implicate the staff. For instance the gameplan against Wisconsin.

The way OSU uses its corners is they put one corner on the boundary side, the other on the field side, and that is where they play regardless of who lines up where. As a result, they really don't know what the other does in zone or in run support. As the boundary CB, Roby is the force player in outside running plays to the boundary. He is VERY good at this. Roby is one of the best/most physical CBs in the NCAA against the run. In the Wisco game, they pulled Roby and put him on Abracadabra's side wherever he was (boundary or corner) and then played a mix of man and zone. Roby was definitely weak on his Field zone responsibilities and was certainly beat in man coverage, but OSU really doesn't play much man coverage.... ever. They really haven't played a lot of man as a matter of philosophy since D'Antonio was the DC and Gamble was playing man.

Back to the question....

I think most of the secondary scheming is done by Withers in conjunction with Fickell. Withers was trying to switch OSU to the NCAA's new secondary hotness... cover 4 pattern matching last year, but OSU just didn't/doesn't have the horses. Pattern matching is very much a hybrid of zone and man coverage and requires safeties that are EXCELLENT in pass coverage (something OSU hasn't had in about 10 years). OSU really doesn't have the safeties to do what Withers wants to do and the staff is doing a very poor job in figuring out how to scheme for the players they have. The loss of Bryant is big and I think we are going to continue to have issues in the secondary until next year. I think we see a nice infusion of talent at S next year, but then there will be some growing pains as Vonn Bell and whoever the other safety is make all their mistakes on the field.

I really wish they would let Bell play some, he cannot possibly be worse than Pitt Brown. Even if he is, at least he will improve... it is like an investment in 2014.

Coming from a Wolverine, we're the football equivalent of a formerly abused wife of a meth addict who just remarried the safe nice guy. We're just glad we have someone who's aware that it's a rivalry and that tackling on defense is integral. Baby steps.

Well, that first half was an absolute mauling. D getting a lot of pressure on Hackenberg, and he's not responding well. Offense looks like a well-oiled machine, and Braxton is really slinging it. Get ready for a lot of Kenny G in the second half.

JB will say PSU is decimated from the pedophile scandal, they need time to recover, no way they can be expected to compete so soon. Followed by claiming all us "homer" think PSU are world beaters and this win "means" something.

Urbs should have dropped 70 on those hillbillies, just ran out of time I guess.

Criminals in this town used to believe in things...honor, respect."I heard your dog is sick, so bought you this shovel"

The defense was better, but there were opportunities that PSU didn't capitalize on offensively early in the game. Once OSU got up a couple of scores the game became way too big for Hackenburg as he pushed to bring them back. The DL did not represent well against the run.

OK, that said.... That offense should be scaring the FUCKING SHIT out of the rest of the B1G. Seriously. The only way to slow them down is to keep them off the field. The only thing that stopped them was a big negative play on first down.

The running game is scary good, and has been in the last 3 games. Hyde is a machine.

Miller has looked very sharp and ridiculously efficient, even though it is pretty clear that the knee is not 100%.

This offense is stunningly good and OSU is going to destroy Purdue.

One other point worth making... That punter is unreal (although he doesn't get much run). He has still only given up one return for a total of 3 yards. He is not leading the country in punt average, but it is nice to have a guy dropping 40 yarders with 0 return yards every game.

Coming from a Wolverine, we're the football equivalent of a formerly abused wife of a meth addict who just remarried the safe nice guy. We're just glad we have someone who's aware that it's a rivalry and that tackling on defense is integral. Baby steps.

Furls, I think that the punting stats are deliberate. Urban has said he wants a punt to be 40 yards and 5 seconds of hang time. Cameron Johnston's delivering that every single time without fail. Not bad for a true freshman from Australia, although I'd like him to uncork a few when we need to reverse field position (although with this offense, that's not too much of a big deal).

The offense gained 400 yards rushing last night. Absolutely unreal. Hyde's getting 6+ yards every time he touches. The offensive line is blowing people off the ball and demonstrating their will against the D. Braxton's accuracy has improved, and that 39-yard TD last night showed the wheels are returning (even though he may still be at 90% or so).

Honestly, the only reason they need to curb stomp everyone is to keep teams like Stanford from passing them. If they win out the rest of the way by 40 points every night, they still will not catch FSU, 'Bama or Oregon.

They need 2 of those 3 to lose. Had the Buckeyes played like this from the beginning of the season, they would still be #2.

Coming from a Wolverine, we're the football equivalent of a formerly abused wife of a meth addict who just remarried the safe nice guy. We're just glad we have someone who's aware that it's a rivalry and that tackling on defense is integral. Baby steps.

Luckily, history has shown that 2 of them WILL lose (well, or OSU will, which renders anything else moot). And not necessarily when expected. Although I'm not sure with Purdue, Illinois, and Indiana coming up.

My latest round of forecasts has it at about 50:50 that 2 of them lose including the championship games.

I got FSU up to 69% likely to win out (same as OSU).Bama is at 61%.Oregon is up to 55%.

There are not a lot of hurdles left for any of these teams.

'Bama has LSU and Auburn.FSU has Miami (they suck) and FL (they suck too).Oregon has Stanford and Oregon State left.

Coming from a Wolverine, we're the football equivalent of a formerly abused wife of a meth addict who just remarried the safe nice guy. We're just glad we have someone who's aware that it's a rivalry and that tackling on defense is integral. Baby steps.

Coming from a Wolverine, we're the football equivalent of a formerly abused wife of a meth addict who just remarried the safe nice guy. We're just glad we have someone who's aware that it's a rivalry and that tackling on defense is integral. Baby steps.

furls wrote:Yeah, the T-Rex thing was awesome. So was the Harry Potter thing.

They seriously are TBDBITL.

They're doing things that I couldn't even imagine when I was in band 8 (goddamn, that's been a while now) years ago. The new band director (hired from within, who dotted the "i" at the '98 Michigan game and has never left OSU, getting 2 master's on the way) has been seriously killing it.

Buzzfeed put together a good compilation of their best stuff from the past 2 years (when Jon Waters took over from Dr. Woods). Lots of GIFs.

furls wrote:Yeah, the T-Rex thing was awesome. So was the Harry Potter thing.

They seriously are TBDBITL.

They're doing things that I couldn't even imagine when I was in band 8 (goddamn, that's been a while now) years ago. The new band director (hired from within, who dotted the "i" at the '98 Michigan game and has never left OSU, getting 2 master's on the way) has been seriously killing it.

Buzzfeed put together a good compilation of their best stuff from the past 2 years (when Jon Waters took over from Dr. Woods). Lots of GIFs.

8 years ago? That would be 2005. I was the Assistant Marine Officer Instructor (the Gunnery Sergeant) with the NROTC unit in 2005. Dr. Woods was trying to tie the band back to its military heritage, and I think we did a uniform inspection on the band in 2005 (+ or -) a year. It was a "ceremonial" inspection in that we didn't tear anyone up or yell at anyone, we just opened ranks looked em over and moved on. Very cool experience. I inspected Dr. Woods.

I interacted with Dr. Woods on several occasions, and I am sure that a better man has never been born. That said, Jon Waters is an upgrade. It is like going from getting a 90% return on your mutual funds to a 95% return, either way you are pretty damn happy, but one is better than the other. Have to give Dr. Woods credit for doing such a great job on his protege.

Coming from a Wolverine, we're the football equivalent of a formerly abused wife of a meth addict who just remarried the safe nice guy. We're just glad we have someone who's aware that it's a rivalry and that tackling on defense is integral. Baby steps.

I can't fault you for thinking they would drop a game. I didn't, but I can understand those that did.

One: It is more likely than not to drop a gameTwo: The team looked vulnerable, especially against TEs because of bad LB coverage, on defense.

In a weird way this team reminds me a lot of 2002. As a guy in the military, I am subjected to lots of different fan bases at work every day and most of them hate Ohio State. Each week in 2002 all these guys would tell me that this was the week the Buckeyes would lose and each week they would win. Ultimately they went on to be a double digit 'dog in the NCG and we all know what happened there.

That team was not great all year, they were good enough all year and great on one day. With Meyer, I think this team could be great on one day. This team is significantly better on O and significantly worse on D, but I think given 8 weeks to gameplan and a season of film that Meyer and Herman will find ways to score a lot of points on anyone (as long as Miller executes). Defensively... I have very little confidence in the staff, but I hope they can toss something together and maybe get a couple of turnovers.

Coming from a Wolverine, we're the football equivalent of a formerly abused wife of a meth addict who just remarried the safe nice guy. We're just glad we have someone who's aware that it's a rivalry and that tackling on defense is integral. Baby steps.

furls wrote:8 years ago? That would be 2005. I was the Assistant Marine Officer Instructor (the Gunnery Sergeant) with the NROTC unit in 2005. Dr. Woods was trying to tie the band back to its military heritage, and I think we did a uniform inspection on the band in 2005 (+ or -) a year. It was a "ceremonial" inspection in that we didn't tear anyone up or yell at anyone, we just opened ranks looked em over and moved on. Very cool experience. I inspected Dr. Woods.

We usually had the Marine ROTC inspect us for home Michigan games. For the Michigan game in 2004 I got a talking to once for a little bit of a ring around my collar from a too close shave that morning (and so therefore a little bit of blood). Would've passed a normal inspection without a problem- barely got past that one. I bought new white shirts every so often after that. Those ROTC inspections were cool.

I certainly would have been there in 2004. I was there from 2003 to 2006.

Coming from a Wolverine, we're the football equivalent of a formerly abused wife of a meth addict who just remarried the safe nice guy. We're just glad we have someone who's aware that it's a rivalry and that tackling on defense is integral. Baby steps.

furls wrote:I certainly would have been there in 2004. I was there from 2003 to 2006.

Well, maybe you're the prick that gave a guy shit for nicking himself shaving.

Eh, it wasn't that big of a deal, otherwise I would've remembered it more. The entire process was a great way to honor the ROTC heritage of the band- and we'd usually want to look our best on Michigan gameday anyways.

furls wrote:I certainly would have been there in 2004. I was there from 2003 to 2006.

Well, maybe you're the prick that gave a guy shit for nicking himself shaving.

Eh, it wasn't that big of a deal, otherwise I would've remembered it more. The entire process was a great way to honor the ROTC heritage of the band- and we'd usually want to look our best on Michigan gameday anyways.

I was just lookig for a flimsy excuse to call Furls a prick.

And I hope if Furls ever did an inspection he didn't pass up the oportunity to drop the old "Where are you from, son?" bit.

furls wrote:I certainly would have been there in 2004. I was there from 2003 to 2006.

Well, maybe you're the prick that gave a guy shit for nicking himself shaving.

Eh, it wasn't that big of a deal, otherwise I would've remembered it more. The entire process was a great way to honor the ROTC heritage of the band- and we'd usually want to look our best on Michigan gameday anyways.

I was just lookig for a flimsy excuse to call Furls a prick.

And I hope if Furls ever did an inspection he didn't pass up the oportunity to drop the old "Where are you from, son?" bit.

My inspections had much more of a "Full Metal Jacket Feel," except for TBDBITL. Those guys pretty much got a pass (mostly because I didn't know their uniform regs).

Coming from a Wolverine, we're the football equivalent of a formerly abused wife of a meth addict who just remarried the safe nice guy. We're just glad we have someone who's aware that it's a rivalry and that tackling on defense is integral. Baby steps.

Coming from a Wolverine, we're the football equivalent of a formerly abused wife of a meth addict who just remarried the safe nice guy. We're just glad we have someone who's aware that it's a rivalry and that tackling on defense is integral. Baby steps.